World Cup Worthy!!
There’s a dip people hover around and a dip people politely sample. This is the first kind. Bubbling, golden at the edges, impossibly savoury — and built around a jar of Fumé-eh Smoked Olive Tapenade doing the heavy lifting.
The tapenade folds through three cheeses and blooms in the oven, releasing that clean hardwood smoke into every layer. It’s the kind of thing that disappears before halftime. Make extra.
Serves 10 · Prep 10 min · Bake 25 min
What You’ll Need
— ¾ cup Fumé-eh Smoked Olive Tapenade
— 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
— ½ cup sour cream
— ¼ cup mayonnaise
— 1½ cups shredded mozzarella, divided
— ½ cup grated Parmesan
— ⅛ cup crumbled feta
— 2 garlic cloves, minced
— 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
— Fresh cracked black pepper
— 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped (to finish)
— Crusty bread, pita, or crackers for serving
How to Make It
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a small cast iron skillet or oven-safe baking dish (8–9 inch).
2. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Fold in sour cream, mayonnaise, garlic, lemon juice, and a generous crack of black pepper until fully combined.
3. Stir in Parmesan, feta, and 1 cup of the mozzarella. Fold in the Smoked Olive Tapenade — you want it distributed but not completely homogenous. A few visible pockets throughout is the goal.
4. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared dish. Scatter the remaining ½ cup mozzarella over the top.
5. Bake 22–25 minutes, until bubbling at the edges and golden on top.
6. Rest 5 minutes before serving — it’ll be lava-hot straight from the oven. Scatter parsley over top. Serve straight from the pan.
A Few Notes
Make-ahead: Mix the base up to a day ahead and refrigerate unbaked. Add 5 minutes to the bake time if going straight from the fridge.
Serving: A cast iron skillet keeps it warm through the whole match. Set it on a trivet on the table and let people dig in.
Scale up: Doubles easily into a 9x13 baking dish for a bigger crowd.
